Slough Trading Estate - General Other - UK

Date: 29 Aug 2008

A development site at Slough Trading Estate was the setting for a staged natural disaster for the day, when it was used by search and rescue organisation, Rapid UK (Rescue and Preparedness in Disasters), to train volunteers and test specialist equipment in a realistic rescue situation.

The specialist team from Rapid UK descended on the Buckingham Avenue development site, where demolition of a former building is currently underway, to practice different rescue scenarios and propping techniques to make buildings safe, and tested sound and thermal location equipment, often used in earthquake rescues.

The site at Slough Trading Estate was also put to good use to train some K9 members of the team. Rapid UK uses disaster search dogs, which are highly trained and taught to find live casualties trapped under the debris of collapsed structures following earthquakes, mudslides and explosions, to offer an additional resource to the main rescue team.

John Miller of Rapid UK, said: "It's great that Slough Trading Estate kindly allowed us access to its demolition site. Whilst not quite on the scale of a full blown disaster we need good sites that allow us to undertake specialist training in order to prepare for the real thing."

Speaking on behalf of Slough Trading Estate, Inward Investment Manager, Neil Impiazzi said: "We were delighted to come to the assistance of Rapid UK and that they were able to put our site to good use for such a worthwhile cause."

A non governmental organisation, Rapid UK, is made up of volunteers from all walks of life who give up their time to protect and preserve human life and provide relief from suffering and distress in any part of the world resulting from disaster such as the Peru earthquake 2007, the 2004 Asian Tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake where the team saved 7 people, and last year's floods in the UK.

Rapid UK at the Slough Trading Estate development site.